Weekend Engagement - Let's Talk About Customer Service

What impresses you?

Good customer service impresses me.

Recently, I have moved from one place to another and this meant that I had a lot of coordination work to do with regard to renovation, purchasing and delivery of furniture, household appliances, etc. As with most people who went through this process, there would surely be good and bad experiences when it comes to customer service. And in this era where consumers have a lot of choices (thanks to the Internet) when searching for products and services, my takeaway after this experience was that pricing aside, customer service is actually one of the main differentiating factor when it comes to customer satisfaction and or even retention. It is not a easy task given that most companies have seemed to outsource their hotlines or even emails to overseas call centres and sometimes they don't even respond.

In this post, I would like to share my experiences with two companies and these are global/international companies. One left me disappointed, another one was a little mixed but I think they impressed me at the end. Of course I won't name them haha.

#1: Defective Chair

So I ordered some tables and chairs from their online store and selected the 1pm to 5pm delivery timeslot. There was no one at 530pm, and when I reached out to the company, they said they are just 15 minutes away. And the same thing was said when I called them again at 630pm. But of course this turned to be untrue because in the end, they eventually arrived at 730pm. What was worse was that their attitude was lacking. I get it, they were probably tired after a long day at work, but why vent their frustration at me?

Long story short, there was a defective chair (with uneven legs), they were so defensive about it, saying there's nothing they could do, the screws were done accordingly to the manual, etc. From the customer's point of view, the issue is the product is defective, and if it can't be fixed, there should be an exchange. But they just went on and on about how it's not their fault - I mean I know it's not their fault but there should be some follow up right?

Anyway, I reached out to the customer service online subsequently via email to report this defective product and I had to chase multiple times to even get a response. Eventually I decided to cc their headquarters' emails and what a miracle, I got a response on the day itself. There was a lot of back and forth too, they wanted photos, then they said they couldn't see the defect from the photos and wanted videos.

Sometimes I wonder if they are just trying to frustrate the customer and hope that the customer will just give up and accept the defective product.

Anyway, after this experience, I won't be buying furniture from them, especially those big ones.

#2: Spoilt Refrigerator

Not sure if luck had any role to play in this, my new refrigerator stopped working after 3 weeks. I told my friends and they were like - how is that even possible?

Anyway, I reached out to their customer service (thankfully it was 24 hours) but they only managed to secure a technician to come down 3 days later. I did press them for an earlier slot because I mean, not having a refrigerator was quite inconvenient. And I had to throw away all my dairy products too.

3 days later, the technician came and checked and told me that the compressor was faulty, and I could either replace the compressor and consider asking for an exchange (subject to approval). During lunch, I called the customer service and emailed them to explain the situation. Within the afternoon, they got back to me and said the exchange was approved.

The next day, they updated me that they had stock readily available and we fixed the earliest delivery timing which was 2 days later. On the day before the delivery, they even called to notify/remind me too. So the new refrigerator came and all was well.

Initially I was still upset that a product from a premium brand would be spoilt so quickly, and that they could only provide a technician 3 days later. But the subsequent rectification and exchange process was as smooth as it could get, and the customer service officers were polite and understanding, and tried to expedite my request because it's a refrigerator. I would definitely buy their products again.

All in all, product defects sometimes are inevitable - which is why they offer warranties - but the follow up action from the customer service I feel is what differentiates the customer experience. Is the team defensive about their request or is the team willing to put themselves in the customer's shoes? Is the team avoiding this issue or is the team tackling head-on to resolve it? I think that was the difference in these two experiences here.

So that's all for my sharing this week! Hope you enjoyed reading and let me know if you have any comments! Have a pleasant week ahead!